My name is Steve and I live both in New York City and Sarasota, Florida.
I've finally found and purchased the car I've had a mad crush on since I was 19 years old. The delivery of my 1978 280Z to Sarasota during the holiday break is sure to be my best Christmas ever!
In my past Z-car history I have owned a 1974 260Z 2+2, 1981 280ZX, 1986 300ZX, 1990 300ZX. Although each of these cars have meant a great deal to me, I always thought of the '78 280Z as the holy grail.

about the car: '78 280Z persimmon red over black interior. 11,800 original one owner survivor miles.

In truth I am a little anxious about taking good care of this treasure and am happy to get feedback from you all. I'm sure I'll have lots of questions...so GOOD TO MEET YOU!

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STEVE TETREAULT

Welcome!
Less than 12k mi?
You're gonna have a ball!

Welcome, and to echo Al's comment, you're about to embark on a great hobby! We are a people club as much if not more then a car club. We enjoy our Z's and will discuss them with anyone at anytime!

Hope to meet you soon!

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Phil
1981 280zxt - Now in the care my son!
2014 370Z Sports Touring Roadster

Well, Steve, the welcome mat has been rolled out for you by others,
to which I can only say amen and welcome.

But what I will add is this: Being in Sarasota, you are right in the back
yard of at least 3 nationally famous Z people. From South to North:
Chris Wenzel, VP of the National Z organization ZCCA (Sarasota); Carl
Beck, principal of the "ZHome" website and probably the foremost Z Car
historian in the country (Clearwater), and Jim Frederick, well-known as
the owner/restorer of about 20 VERY early Z cars and the restoration
guru to those of us who aren't that advanced, as well as the PreZ of the
Sun Coast Z Car Club.

Not trying to dissuade you from participating with us, quite the contrary.
Just recognizing the fact that it is a bit long for you to commute to very
many of our meetings and events, whereupon we can supplement what
we ourselves can offer, by connecting you to yet another group nearer
your home so you can also get some eyeball-to-eyeball Z activity.

BTW we can relate to you since our '69 #171 car has 28700 original
miles. We know that is authentic because we bought her in Aug 1973
from the first owner, whom we knew, when she had only 23000 miles!

All Z Best,...............................Kathy & Rick

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All Z Best,.......Kathy & Rick

1969 Z.CAR (#00013 10/69) 8/30/76
1969 ITSA.Z (#00171 11/69) 8/24/73
1970 OLD.Z (#06289 6/70) original owner
1971 510 2dr since 12/31/75
1969 1600 rdstr (our 160-Z)
1971 (#19851 1/71) sold
1975 75.Z (#01343 1/75)

Hi Steve, WELCOME! (And what a GREAT screen name! I'm jealous! ).

That 280 is a beauty, and those wheels BELONG on that car. You sure have an eye for art. With all those Zs in your background, I'm confident this one will enjoy a lifetime of caretaking and road use.

I thank Rick Morgan (owner of HLS30-00013, the FIRST American 240Z) for his advice about your Florida 'locals'. I will (proudly) add that each of those names are treasured members of the CT Z Car Club. So that makes y'all Z brothers. You're off to a good start.

When you're up in NYC, pleaZe feel invited (no, URGED) to come and meet us. We move our monthly meetings around the state of CT so we can serve as many of our members as possible, and several of our meeting sites are pretty close to the NY boarder. We have many NY residents who are our members, and it's always wonderful to zee them arrive at our meetings and events. I'm sure you could gather a caravan and swoop in together.

ALSO in NYC is the highly-esteemed NYZCC, presided over by our member Clive (EvilZ) Bogle. Many of their members are also our members, and we like to get together with them as often as possible. They enjoy an active Z zeason in the NY area, sharing many trips and events together.

Where is the car now, here or there? Will we get to zee it when it's up here? If you can possibly arrange it, pleaZe be assured we would be an appreciative audience whenever you want to show it off.

Really glad to have you aboard. I have recently sent you an email telling you some background info about the CTZCC. You're one of us now ~ looking fwd to meeting you in person.

Z ya!
Frank T

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1970 240Z

11,800 original miles????

I am persimmon with envy!

Congratulations and hope we see it up in CT at some point.

Welcome to the club!

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Ross Williams
1978 280Z Black Pearl Edition 38k Original Miles

That is without a doubt the nicest condition stock 280z I've ever seen.

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-Chris

She is truly something to behold! Welcome to the Z world. That car is an absolute gem.

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-Dave
76Z Turbo'd
72 In Progress---DONE!

whoa! I had Florida's oranges before, but they where never that good! Miam! I am too young here to welcome you but I can say Bravo!

Boomer

Welcome to the Greatest Z car club in the world. Wow you live in New York and Florida! You must have a HUGE house to strecth that far!

I live in western Nebraska and aspire to live in Connecticutt!

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Bill James
Western Nebraska
1979 280zx coupe parts car
1980 280 zx coupe
2005 Pathfinder
1971 240 z
1982 280zx, 1977 &1974 corvettes

Hey Wild Bill ~ if Steve's house stretches from NY to FL, I wonder if he has an attached garage we could use?

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1970 240Z

Steve, if you want to keep that beautiful Z beautiful, and you intend for it to live in NY (road salt) and FL (sea salt & sand), make early arrangements to get the undercarriage coated.

I know I will immediately get a flurry of sniper fire from all points of the compass for suggesting that (and I can name the snipers before the first shot is fired! ), but if it's done correctly and applied to a CLEAN, DRY undercarriage, it's the very best thing you can do for an early Z.

Sand and salt are the two worst enemies of the early Z car. Any body armor you can afford will help to keep it whole.



Frank

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1970 240Z

beautiful 280! congrats and welcome to the club!

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http://kingofapes.blogspot.com/

Hi Steve:
Welcome to the club - and that looks like a beautiful 280Z. As Frank mentioned, I'm in Clearwater so if you get up this way be sure to stop by and we can talk Z Cars. I tell everyone to wear old clothes because we'll most likely be in the garage - and I may put you to work...

With any car that is 33 years old - and which has less than 12K miles - there are things you will want to keep a close eye on. Perhaps first and foremost is all the rubber parts in the Fuel system, followed by the rubber parts in the cooling/heating system.

Todays gasoline with ethanol can destroy the rubber compounds used in fuel lines 33 years ago. So you may want to see if you can find a gas station in your area that sells ethanol free gasoline - you can do a google search for your area.

Even without ethanol, synthetic rubber has an expected life cycle. Ozone and UV do the most damage, but so can chemicals in anti-freeze/coolant - even if the car has been garage kept it's entire life - 33 years is perhaps pushing toward the limit. You'll want to assure that the coolant is changed every couple years - even if the car isn't driven that much.

I realize that you will want to keep "everything" original - but suggest that you start to accumulate as many NOS gas and fuel lines as you can find. NOS parts will be as old as the parts on the car, but they will not have been subjected to the heat cycles and chemicals that the parts on the car have been. At some point in the future you may have to change some of them out...

Keep the battery on a good float charger too {if you aren't already doing so}.

This is a great group here and I'm sure you'll enjoy getting to know many of the members.

FWIW,
Carl

Carl Beck, President
Internet Z Car Club
Clearwater, FL USA
http://ZHome.com
beck@becksystems.com

I agree with Phrog that Z is CLEAN!!

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Mike Tubiak
1978 Datsun 280Z - HLS30-438694